Manfred
Thumm (SM’94-F’02) was born in Magdeburg, Germany,
on August 5, 1943. He received the Dipl. Phys. and Dr. rer. nat.
degrees in physics from University of Tübingen, Germany, in 1972 and
1976, respectively.
At the University of Tübingen he was involved in the investigation of
spin-dependent nuclear forces in inelastic neutron scattering.

From
1972 to 1975 he was Doctoral Fellow of the Studienstiftung des
deutschen Volkes. In 1976 he joined the Institute for Plasma Research
in the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of
Stuttgart, Germany, where he worked on RF production and RF heating of
toroidal pinch plasmas for thermonuclear fusion research. From 1982 to
1990 his research activities were mainly devoted to electromagnetic
theory and experimental verification in the areas of component
development transmission of very high power
millimeter waves through overmoded waveguides and of antenna structures
for RF plasma heating with microwaves.

In June 1990 he became a Full
Professor at the Institute for Microwaves and Electronics of the
University of Karlsruhe, Germany, and Head of the Gyrotron Development
and Microwave Technology Division, Institute for Technical Physics,
Research Center Karlsruhe (Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe: FZK). Since
April 1999, he has been the Director of the Institute for Pulsed Power
and Microwave Technology, FZK, where his current research projects are
the development of high power gyrotrons, dielectric vacuum windows,
transmission lines and antennas for nuclear fusion plasma heating, and
industrial material processing. On October 1, 2009, the University of
Karlsruhe and the FZK have merged to the Karlsruhe Institute of
Technology (KIT).

M. Thumm has authored/co-authored four books, 13 book
chapters, 261 research papers in scientific journals, and more than
1130 conference proceedings
articles. He holds 12 patents on active and passive microwave devices.

He is member of the IEEE EDS Vacuum Devices Technical Committee and the
NPSS PSAC Executive Committee, a member of the
Chapter 8.6 Committee Vacuum Electronics and Displays of the
Information Technical Society in German VDE (Chairman from 1996 to
1999) and a member of the German Physical Society. From 2007 to 2008 he
was an EU member of the ITER Working Group on Heating and Current
Drive, the vice chairman of the Scientific-Technical Council of the FZK
and the vice chairman of the Senate of the KIT. From 2008 to 2010 he
was the deputy head of the Topic Fusion Technology of the KIT Energy.
He was the General Chair of the IRMMW-THz 2004 and IEEE ICOPS 2008
Conferencs in Karlsruhe, Germany. He has been a member of the
International Organization and Advisory Committees of many
International Conferences. From 2003 to 2010 he was the ombudsman for
upholding good scientific practice at FZK/KIT.

He was awarded with the Kenneth John Button Medal and Prize 2000, in
recognition of outstanding contributions to research on the physics of
gyrotrons and their applications. In 2002, he was awarded the title of
Honorary Doctor, presented by the St. Petersburg State Technical
University, for his outstanding contributions to the development and
applications of vacuum electron devices.

He received the IEEE-EDS 2008
IVEC Award for Excellence in Vacuum Electronics for outstanding
achievements in the development of gyrotron oscillators, microwave mode
converters and transmission line components, and their applications in
thermonuclear fusion plasma heating and materials processing. Together
with two of his colleagues he received the 2006 Best Paper Award of the
Journal of Microwave Power and Electromagnetic Energy and the 2009 CST
University Publication Award.

In 2010 he was awarded with the IEEE-NPSS
Plasma Science and Applications Award for outstanding contributions to
the development of high power microwave sources (in particular
gyrotrons) for application in magnetically confined fusion plasma
devices as well as for stimulation and establishing of extensive
international co- operations. Together with A. Litvak and K. Sakamoto
he has been the recipient of the EPS Plasma Physics Innovation Prize
2011 for outstanding contributions to the realization of high power
gyrotrons for multi-megawatt long-pulse electron cyclotron heating and
current drive in magnetic confinement nuclear fusion plasma devices.